Crunch in the Gaming Industry: Is the Gaming Industry Cutthroat?

The gaming industry is just as competitive as any other industry out there. Plus, it can be cutthroat, with company acquisitions being the norm. By that, we mean that giants like Sony and Microsoft usually buy out shares of independent studios. Valve Corporation, the studio behind the critically-acclaimed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is also an honourable mention. Hence, it’s a monopoly that stifles competition. 

In this article, we’re breaking down all the activities that occur behind the scenes. Of course, these events affect the workers the most. Learn about the ins and outs of the gaming industry’s most bizarre tactics and ethics today. 

Also Read: 10 Most Played Online Multiplayer Video Games in the World

What Is Crunching?

Crunching is the practice of overworking developers, writers, designers, and any other gaming industry worker. The extra work hours are never properly compensated. Even games like Elden Ring crunch.  For one, employers might not honour the contract in place. Instead, they’re stressed out. However, jokes aside, the biggest issue with crunching is that developers are forced to waste their free time while also writing bad codes because they were rushed. In some circles, crunching is compulsory.

For team leaders, this is the realisation that the studio has multiple deadlines for completing a project. Unfortunately, they didn’t meet those milestones. It’s not entirely the team’s fault; Blame the nature of game development. They face issues such as:

• An overreliance on third-party services and products.
• Workflow schedules are unpredictable due to funding limits and lack of teamwork.
• The creative juice of game creators isn’t infinite and, in most cases, requires constant stimulation.

In some cases, creators choose to work overtime and in most cases, they’re young, underage men who don’t have a family yet. In the end, it’s still an exploitative measure that’s only prevalent because the workforce allows it.

Creators Call It Crunch Culture for a Reason

Crunching is a combination of peer pressure and work ethic so certain workers see it as a necessity. If you want a game to turn out well, you crunch to make it a masterpiece. In fact, some studios are so proud of crunching that they’ll release their teams’ work hours as evidence that they’re hard workers. Despite the fluctuating numbers, some circles theorise that around 50% of game creators consider crunching to be the norm. They say it’s part of the process, especially as gamers also contribute to the practice.

The Influence of Gamers on Crunch Culture

Gamers also encourage creators to crunch, especially after studios release trailers showing off their next games. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 developers received death threats from fans of the game who were expecting them to not postpone the release date. These threats and encouragements often push gaming industry workers to push themselves past their limits. Sure, the whole point of life is to test our limits, but still, developers are humans too.

The Typical Workspace Ethics in the Gaming Industry

Workspaces are usually clean and in pristine condition, but once crunching kicks in, nobody is exempt from working long hours. By “Long hours”, you can picture an unkempt office with pizza boxes lying around and empty cups waiting for their next coffee refills. All this binge-eating and drinking is meant to offset the huge levels of stress that gaming industry workers are subjected to. 

Hard work, huge levels of stress, and a desire to escape reality are common among game creators. This applies to all facets of the gaming industry and sure enough, crunching gets the work done. It cuts weeks or even months out of the production time, so we gamers, including the reviewers at Player.com, can enjoy top-tier games without waiting for too long. 

Advantages of Crunching

The biggest advantage of crunching is obvious and that’s getting the project completed before the deadline. Besides their passion for creating fun sandboxes, studios that can’t postpone release dates can have their funds cut by their sponsors. However, they still get the job done, even though the quality of the final project depends on the testers and debuggers.

Disadvantages of Crunching

Crunching may have some advantages, but we feel one disadvantage is enough to offset as many as three other benefits. This subsection is dedicated to the issues of crunching in the gaming industry, which are:

• Lack of Motivation: A lack of motivation is the precursor to an absence of creative ideas, which is the biggest reason why many games flop. Humans aren’t AIs or supercomputers, so fatigue is real. Once writers run out of great ideas or go on strike, you’ll notice a dramatic decrease in gameplay quality. If not for product managers and their dedication to success, most games in development wouldn’t see the light of day.
• Burnout: The next phase after a lack of motivation to work is burnout. This is a phase where developers start hating their jobs so you can say they’ve lost their passion for game development. Workers can experience anxiety, sadness, and boredom.

Ultimately, crunching affects the quality of games that a studio develops and a simple comparison to studios that don’t crunch is evidence. According to reports using Metacritic as a measuring tool, studios that don’t crunch usually produce the best games, which are virtually free of bugs. 

On the other hand, crunching produces games that are buggy. Fallout: Las Vegas is a prime example of how crunching affects gameplay since it was released with many game-breaking bugs. Cyberpunk 2077 also suffered from the hype of their previous games, The Witcher series. So, it almost failed to meet fans’ expectations. At launch, the game was basically unplayable on PS4s and Xbox Ones.

Evidence of the Adverse Effects of Crunching

@nachtfroststudios

Making games is fun tho #gamesindustry #crunch #indiedeveloper #indiegame #aaa

♬ original sound – Gavin Davis

There are several instances in recent memory where crunching has led to issues. This is aside from the drama surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 release. To that end, here’s one major instance when crunching and underpaying staff led to public outrage. We’ve broken down all the highlights of the case. 

• The 2004 EA Case: In 2004, two lawsuits against EA popped up claiming that the game maker was forcing workers to spend extra time developing games. Through the work phase, there was no compensation for their hard work. One suit said that artists were forced to work overtime on The Sims 2 and they weren’t compensated for the extra hours. The second suit was posted by an anonymous account (At the time) which was later exposed to be Erin Hoffman in disguise. It broke down the long hours of work that a wife witnessed her husband crunch. The company misled developers that crunching would be brief, but then later switched up to saying it was a long-term ethic. All in the name of developing the perfect game while not being properly compensated. EA later paid off both lawsuits in the sum of £10,000 give or take. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Is Gaming a Good Paying Job?

Yes, being an eSports pro gamer is a lucrative career, with hard-core players earning up to £150,000 annually. If you’re a developer instead, you can earn upwards of £50,000 per year. Game designers and scriptwriters can earn almost as much as that. Let’s also remember that testers, who are akin to game reviewers, are the first ones to play the game even before reviewers get their copies. They work with debuggers to iron out the kinks of a game before it’s released to the public. So, they’re important in crunch culture because developers may leave a lot of poorly written codes in the game application. 

Do Game Developers Get Overworked?

Crunch is a term in the gaming industry that translates to developers and other workers crunching up to 85 hours per week. Often times, workers aren’t compensated beyond the normal working hours, which leads to a somewhat toxic workspace. Of course, toxic doesn’t necessarily mean unproductive, because famous studios have engaged their workers in crunch culture and still came out on top. 

Is It Hard to Work in the Gaming Industry?

Finding work in the gaming industry is notoriously difficult. So, we cringe at the idea of competing against coworkers and external workers. This applies to all the fields in the gaming industry, including marketing, art and design, programming, and accounting. However, the experience that you’ll gain is world-class if you do find yourself working in the gaming industry.